Ties Stronger than Blood
by Everlasting Sparkles
Summary: It's 8 years before Harry Potter is born and his parents are in their last year at Hogwarts, but were they always such good friends as Sirius makes out and how did they earn their reputation of being such pranksters..... read on to find out.
1. By The Lake

Disclaimer: All names, places and characters in the following story (excepting Alijanna, Silva and Richard Dumbledore, Sandra Longbottom, Nythan fighters club, Pendon fighters club and Bhogavati night club) are the intellectual property of J.K Rowling. I have no right to them call my own or make any money from them (which is unfortunate but unavoidably true).  
  
Chapter 1: By The Lake  
  
"You would though, wouldn't you?" Sirius Black looked to his left, shading his eyes against the rays of light almost too strong to be from an autumn sun, which filtered through the trees and gazed towards the dappled lake. Or rather, towards the young woman standing on a leafy branch which overhung the deep blue water. Her school robes had been discarded in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the tree she had scaled and she now stood on the branch, in only her lacy, black underwear preparing to dive. James Potter, who was lounging idly next to him, fanning himself in the heat, barely glanced in her direction before replying "no". Sirius stared at him in shocked disbelief, "But why? Look at her, she's incredible, she looks like a…." he cast around looking for a good description, "a corrupted angel".  
  
This statement brought a loud, derisive snort from Remus Lupin, "angel, how poetic, it must be love". Aside form throwing a large pebble at him, Sirius ignored him and refocused has attention on James.  
  
"But why? She's beautiful." She really was, but not in a conventional way. She had definite curves and certainly wasn't the thinnest girl in school, but she did look really physically fit. She wasn't tall either, being only up to about Sirius' shoulder, about 5" 5 but her height didn't diminish her beauty, only made her seem consistent. Her hair colour was interchangeable, at the moment most of it was a dark copper brown, which must have been pretty close to her natural, but several chunky streaks of it were a rebellious lime green. Her lack of clothes meant that you could see the large, vivid orange and red phoenix tattoo, which covered the left side of her stomach past her bellybutton, her diamante belly bar giving it a sparkly nose which glittered in the sunlight. She was the ultimate "I don't give a fuck" rebellion chick. Which Sirius had to admit was a big part of the appeal.  
  
"Too much baggage, mate. That girl has major family issues for a start. I hear she left home in the middle of the summer, lives with her uncle now, I'm sure he's a really good influence", James replied. This last comment brought laughs from both Moony and Wormtail, who were sure that a petty criminal who made half his income from dodgy games of wizard poker and the other from selling stolen goods, couldn't be a good influence on anyone. Especially someone who got detention at least once a month for general insolence and lack of decorum.  
  
"In case you forgot," Sirius said, with slight heat, "I left home when I was younger than her".  
  
"Yeah" said James distractedly while attempting to swat a wasp with his wand, "but you had an excuse. Your family's a bit nuts, hers, aside from her prick of a brother, is relatively normal. Besides she's a Slytherin". From James' point of view this last was one of the worst crimes anyone could commit, and, under normal circumstances Sirius would agree, but she didn't act like a Slytherin. Maybe the hat made a mistake…….  
  
"I have to give her points for the swimming idea though", He continued, "why is it always so hot just after we go back to school. It's like the weather's laughing at us". At this point, as if on queue, she ran along the top of the branch, then cartwheeled and dived head first into the centre of the lake, doing a forward roll in mid air for the pleasure of her audience before slicing the water cleanly.  
  
"Look at that", Sirius exclaimed, "perfect balance. She must fight for Nythan".  
  
Moony looked both surprised and interested, "how can you tell? She could just be naturally gymnastic".  
  
Sirius considered carefully before answering, "it's in the way she walks, have you seen how she bounces on her heels, she always looks like she could drop into a fighting stance at a moments notice". By this time Sirius was so deeply engrossed in describing what made a perfect fighter, that he hadn't noticed that on mention of the word "Nythan" James had sat up and, for the first time taken a real interest in the conversation.  
  
"Why do you care if she fights or not?" he demanded, interrupting Sirius' flow, and glaring at him with narrow, accusing eyes. "I thought you didn't do that any more, you promised you were finished with it".  
  
"I swore that I'd never go back to Pendon after I stopped speaking to my family", Sirius' voice took on a defensive tone without him realising it, "and that I'd have nothing to do with any of it while I was staying with your parents, because I know how they feel about violence and law breakers in general. But…", he shrugged, "I'm not staying with them any more, and besides Nythan is completely different to Pendon. Not that it's likely I'll ever be given a membership there".  
  
"Why not? Are they very exclusive?", asked Moony, ignoring James' silent disapproval and continuing to look interested. Sirius tore his attention away from James and prepared to answer the question, but, to his great shock Peter spoke before him. His slightly squeaky voice grated on Sirius' nerves.  
  
"Oh yes", his shrill voice piped, "I heard you need a respected member to sign you in as a guest, another member to propose your membership after 3 months of being a guest, and yet another member to second your membership before they actually give you a key to the changing area". After receiving a nod from Sirius which confirmed that his information was accurate, Peter looked pleased that, for once, he had known more than the others about something. However his smug look faded when he saw the glares that James was now directing at him.  
  
"I can't believe that you're all ok with his involvement in this, it's completely illegal" , exclaimed James heatedly. This statement brought gales of laughter from the other 3.  
  
"Since when have you cared about breaking rules" Mooney asked, successfully swatting the wasp which James had missed earlier.  
  
"This isn't a rule, it's a law. None of the little school rules we break could get us killed or sent to Azkaban".  
  
"Really" Sirius mused, lowering his voice, "none of them? I seem to remember there being a law somewhere about needing to register if you're an animagus. And I can think of several monsters in the forest which would kill you as soon as look at us, yet you never protest about us going in there. Maybe those 'little rules' we break all the time are as serious as the law I'm planning to break".  
  
"Those are different" James protested, "they……."  
  
Sirius interrupted him "of course their not, your just being hypocritical". The once friendly afternoon chat about a pretty girl had suddenly broken down into a tense atmosphere, which was bordering on an actual fight. So many of their conversations these days did Sirius realised. Increasingly Prongs talked to Moony before him now. Sirius supposed that this was partly his fault. Since James and Lillie had started going out 2 months ago, she was all James talked about. This had been made worse when Moony had started going out with her best friend Sandy. They had begun having long, dewy eyed conversations about their girlfriends which Sirius, who got bored with girlfriends after a week of their company, found incredibly tedious. So he went out walking in the evenings to avoid living in Couples Ville, borrowing the invisibility clock which James now only ever used on full moons. He had missed things in those evenings by himself, the girls had become a firm part of the group, and he now played a less active role, standing on its fringes. He had to admit the sudden change in dynamics had made him kind of bitter, and he felt almost….jealous.  
  
This time, however, a row was prevented by a loud, shrieking shout which echoed across the lake. "Alijanna Dumbledore" Professor McGonagall 's furious yell could be heard over half the grounds. "What do you think you are doing?"  
  
A small smile and "swimming professor" were all the answer she got from the girl in the lake.  
  
Her face went white and she looked apoplectic with rage. Then she yelled "Mobilcorpus" and Alin flew through the air towards her, landing on the bank. Another flick of her wand and a fluffy white dressing gown appeared and wrapped itself around the girl, tying its strings in a tight knot. "Headmasters office, at once".  
  
"what did I do?" the girl indignantly spluttered, her wet hair dripping onto the back of the dressing gown, leaving a dark wet patch from the muddy water.  
  
"Indecent exposure for a start" professor McGonagall replied, "now start walking madam".  
  
By the time Alin had wound her way passed them towards the castle, and they had watched her being admonished twice for walking with the dressing gown hanging open, they were all in such fights of laughter , that the fight and its tensions had been forgotten.  
  
To be continued……  
  
Authors note: Hey guys hope you liked the first chapter of "Ties stronger than blood". As it's my first do you think you could go easy on it. Anyway please R&R, constructive criticism is always welcome.  
  
Luv to you all Sparkles xoxo 


	2. A welcome introduction

2. A welcome introduction

That night was more of the same, Prongs and Moony either drooled over their girlfriends or spent any free moments discussing how wonderful they were, while Wormtail listened - the happy gooseberry. Sirius sank into an advanced state of boredom. The common room was as loud as ever, the flickering flames in the grate tonight were only an illusion, conjured to give the room the same happy fire lit glow as usual, even when the weather was too hot for real flames. The main volume of noise tonight came from a group of 4th years who were practicing stunning spells by the stairs to the girls dormitory, and the air had a sickly sweet smell caused by the excessive amount of honeysuckle pollen one 2nd year had put in his flexibility potion. Sirius could already have told him it wouldn't work when he actually tried to use it, but he wasn't in the mood to correct anyone else's homework tonight, not after spending the last 30 mins correcting Peter's, something James used to do before he started drooling.

Everything tonight was normal. Yet, bored didn't cover it. By 9.30 Sirius' brain had turned to half set concrete, and he felt it was in danger of turning entirely solid if he remained in the room any longer.

"I'm going out", he half yelled this statement down the table they had been occupying all night.......and no one noticed. Not one of the 5 noticed when he climbed the steps to the tower, or looked up from their conversations when he returned, carrying James' invisibility cloak under his arm, and exited through the portrait hole. In fact no one noticed his absence until they all went to bed and found he wasn't their room, but by that time Sirius wasn't anything close to bored.

Walking through the grounds in the light of a moon a week past full, his temper seemed to sooth. Which was ironic really, when he considered that the moonlight also gave one of the most even-tempered men he'd ever known fangs, a thick fur pelt and made him act like a bear with a sore head. Without really knowing why he walked there his feet took him towards the forbidden forest. The un-seasonal weather from that morning remained, but the huge black thunder clouds on the horizon were a sign that it was about to break into a spectacular storm.

As he looked up ahead Sirius saw someone being chased through the small copse of trees on the edge of the forest. Not wanting to interrupt some guy's fun with his girlfriend, Sirius was turning to walk to the lake side when he saw the moonlight hit the green streaks in the girl's hair, and quickly realized that it was not one boy chasing her, but three. He broke into a fast, but quiet, sprint towards the trees, despairing of how unfit he had gotten in the months since quitting Pendon.

Upon entering the copse, the scene he found before him disgusted him. The moon light fell in clear beams across the girls face, but shadows hid two of her captors, the third, however, was clearly visible. No matter how fast she had run, Alijanna had eventually been caught by her three Slytherin pursuers. The two in the shadows were now having great difficulty pinning her to a tree, and had had to resort to holding a great handful of her hair so tight in each of their fists that if she moved too much it would be ripped from her scalp. The third, Sirius' little brother, Regulus, was currently trying to move in for a kiss, but not having much luck , as she aimed a kick right at his balls every time he came within 5 steps of her. She had spirit all right.

Though he felt his temper rise uncontrollably, Sirius even remembered to take off his ring incase he broke his finger when he hit his brother, before advancing into the clearing, leaning nonchalantly against a tree and quipping

"Why is it little brother, that I always have to give you lessons to improve your manners? Let her got will you, she's too much for you to handle".

His entrance brought a look of pole-axed shock to Regulus' chubby face and his two, very thick, minions were so surprised that they released their hold on her hair, if not on the rest of her. Sirius wondered about her not fighting them off. It wasn't until she made a slight "after you" gesture with her hand that he realized she was being polite: by Nythan rules, as he had made the first challenge he got to throw the first punch.

He wasn't quite ready to yet, however. "Give him time to back off", he thought.

This had apparently been a waste of time, as Regulus replied "as you're no longer my brother, I no longer have to listen to any of your 'advice'". Then he lunged at Sirius, fists aimed for a strong punch to the bridge of the nose, which Sirius dodged easily, the attack had been obvious. As Regulus sailed past him Sirius gave him one good blow to the back of the head which sent him sprawling, he didn't get up. Satisfied that his brother wouldn't return to the fight, Sirius focused his attention on dealing with the other two, only to find his help wouldn't be required.

One was crawling towards Regulus, whimpering and murmuring about "pretty psycho bitches who can't take a joke"; while the other was in no condition to fight due to his heavily bleeding nose.

Alijanna surveyed them for a moment, then turned, looked Sirius up and down, nodded once, then walked back towards the castle.

"Hey" he called after her, "don't I get a thank you".

"What for?" she returned, combing her hair back into place with her fingers.

"Oh, I donno, saving you maybe"

"You saved me the exertion have having to beat up all three at once" she replied, laughing, "and quite frankly I could have done with the exercise. Goodnight". With that she kept walking and was soon out of view.


	3. The Last Gate

The Last Gate

It was sometime long after curfew, Sirius wasn't quite sure when. He was crossing a bit of ground close to the entrance hall which had too little cover for his liking, when lightening flashed, illuminating the sky with a sliver strobe. The gentle wind which had begun to alleviate the heat in the late evening had grown, feeding on the sea breezes thrown off by the lake. It was now whistling, with intent to howl, through the trees. The storm was nearly directly over head now, the stars which had been twinkling brightly were covered in a heavy blanket, and it would start pelting it down any minute, which was why he was heading back to the tower. Hopefully the couples would have managed to break eye contact long enough to get some rest, he was doubtful, but it could happen.

He was so lost in unhappy day dreams that, his lack of concentration, along with the winds incessant noise, caused him to bump into something half way across the open space. It took him a split second to realise that the something was in fact an invisible someone and he raised his hands to defend himself from this unseen attacker. The force showed no signs of aggression however. It moved quickly from in front of him to by his side, still using what he assumed was an arm around his waist to stop him from walking on. He heard the rustle of an invisibility cloak, and felt it brush softly on his cheek, brushing against his stubbly sideburns, as a rather short someone stood on their tiptoes, balancing themselves on his arm.

Soft lips ghosted past his ear, hot breath fell on his neck, and a tiny whisper said "you're walking into a trap. McGonagall is ahead by the steps; Professor Vulpus is coming in from by the lake, he's somewhere in the greenery behind you". She had just named the two known animagi on staff, but there were others on his tail too.

"Flitwick and Pomfrey are coming in from right and left. They're trying to catch you in the middle". Every muscle in his body tensed.

"Am I in their sights?" he asked determined to keep his voice casual.

The cloak brushed his cheek again as she shook her head and a lock of green hair tickled his face. "Not yet. Put your cloak on".

He did, sweeping it over his head in a smooth motion, but replied "how will this help, they'll still catch us in the middle". Another peel of thunder sounded over head and the first fat dollops of rain began to fall.

Again a shake of her head "I know a way through, and a place where we can hide, you'll have to follow me".

"How? You're invisible". So much for that plan he thought.

With a little too much patience in her voice she replied "put a marker charm on me, then you'll be able to see an orange glow where I am. This is its symbol", she sketched it on his arm with her nail. "Draw it with your wand while speaking the word………."

"I know how to do a marker charm" he snapped, and promptly drew it on her forehead with his wand.

"OK" she whispered, "follow me, and watch for Cat's eyes in the dark".

With that she pulled away from him. Sirius took a quick look left and right, and then followed a rapidly fading orange haze towards the forest.

Twenty minutes later he was still following her and was beginning to think she'd lost her way. The forest around him was very thick and they'd long passed any parts of it he knew. He could hear ominous rustlings from either side of him but was unsure whether it was the teachers following them, or simply some of the forests nastier residents considering whether or not to attempt to eat them. He was also soaked to the skin due to the torrential rain which was now falling. The trees around them thinned suddenly and Sirius found himself in a medium sized clearing, one which he knew well. He and his friends had used this clearing as a base for their first few outings as amimagi in 5th year. The reason he hadn't realised where they were heading was that he had never come to it through the forest, only skirted around the sides passed the gamekeepers hut.

The existence of this clearing had always bothered Sirius. From the west side of the forest it was 5 minutes in on the only straight path from one side to the other. That journey took over an hour and evolved going directly passed the lair of the acromantula, a very dangerous place to be. This clearing however, contained no monsters.

As it was this far into the forest it couldn't be a natural occurrence, and yet Sirius could see no real purpose to its construction. It was also not a very good place to hide. Nearly everyone in the school knew of its existence, even if most of them only had a vague idea where it was.

"Please let her have somewhere better than this" he begged inwardly.

He could see Alin only with the aid of his marker charm. She had walked over to between two trees on the Northern edge of the clearing, whose branches had grown intertwined to give the appearance of a doorframe which tilted towards the ground between them. Alijanna walked to the tree on the and turned her hand around a knot in its bark, as if trying to turn a doorknob, then moved to the other tree and repeated the ritual. Finally she stood in the "doorway" and knocked the intertwined branched overhead.

The response to this was instantaneous. The branches glowed a bright mossy green, then five shoots on the branches sprouted and began to grow rapidly downwards. At first they were thin and swayed in the wind, but as they got closer and closer to the grass they grew wider, flatter and became a dark brown colour. They formed themselves into a door which would have looked very like the entry to a muggle garden shed if it hadn't been covered with strange carvings. Trees, centaurs and other forest creatures surrounded a large centre motif of a castle with a small open door in its side. Inscribed across the top were the words _The Last Gate. _Behind the door a passage way which seemed to lead down into the ground had appeared.

Sirius only had a second to admire the carvings before the door swung open and the orange haze disappeared inside it. He moved towards it, stood in the doorway and looked down into total blackness. In the very small distance he could see ahead of him he made out two solid looking stone steps, which seemed to descend steeply into the darkness, and a slightly curved earthen roof overhead, from which the roots of the grass above hung in several places. Beyond that there was nothing, or may as well have been.

However, as unsavoury as the passage might look, it didn't smell of damp or decay. In fact, from what he could smell the air was quite fresh down there. "Besides", he told himself, "I don't really have any other options". So taking a deep breath he plunged into the dark.

The stairs went straight down for three steps, and then turned so sharply to the left that Sirius walked right into the wall, stubbing his toe. Biting back all the curses that he wanted to yell about "Bloody stupid green haired outcasts who, while promising to bloody help you, make you follow when they disappear down bloody rabbit holes and leave you stubbing your toes in the bloody pitch black", he turned the corner and continued to walk with his hands against the passage walls, hoping that he would at least have some warning if the passage turned again.

As the pain in his feet subsided, the stairs continued their steep descent for fifteen more steps, then took another 90 degree turn, this time to the right, which brought him out into a short level tunnel. A tunnel which had a faint light at the end of it.

The room he emerged into was rectangular, probably about 5m by 4m, but it was hard to see the far wall in the dim light. The source of this light was a small lamp which sat on the table in the middle of the room. Through the shadows he could see Alin's discarded invisibility cloak lying over the back of a kitchen chair. The girl herself was no where in sight, so when she spoke to him he jumped about a foot in the air.

"Do something useful, will you, and light the wall torches", she asked as her head appeared, and quickly disappeared again, from the shadows behind the table.

It wasn't until he returned to the table after lighting the torches with a quick spell, that he realised why she was kneeling on the floor- there was a fireplace on the far wall and she was setting the fire. With the torches lit and the fire going the room was much lighter and Sirius got his first look around. The room showed signs of frequent use. There was a large pewter cauldron in one corner which was filled with a viscous looking yellow liquid and bubbled through there was no heat underneath it. A large mirror hung on the left wall. A book, "Why I died when Augurey cried", lay with its spine cracked on the table with sheaves of parchment, which looked like unfinished herbology homework stacked beside it. Above the fire place he saw the same motif which appeared on the door, except that underneath this one was inscribed a list which had the heading "Keepers Of The last Gate". At the top of this list were the names of the four Hogwarts founders and at the bottom was Alijanna Dumbledore.

As she left the fire and walked to sit opposite him Sirius asked "what's the last gate, and how'd you get be its keeper?"

"That's the last gate" she replied, pointing at the fireplace, "and the sorting hat picks a new keeper once every eight years, when the old one leaves school. I'm the only one who can open that door", she pointed at the way they came in, "from inside or out".

"What's the point in it" Sirius asked confused, "If all people can do is get into this room but not out into the castle it's not much of a gate is it".

She considered carefully before answering, watching the potion in the corner bubbling. "What do you know about the castle's security systems, the more complex ones?"

"Not a lot" he admitted, "'Hogwarts: A History' always seemed really heavy going; Mooney's the only one who's really read it".

She smiled in agreement. "Well, most of them are so complex that I don't understand them" she said "but one of the most important ones is the headmaster's control of the fires. You know that all the fires, except the teacher's, are monitored to prevent the students sneaking away from school?"

Sirius nodded his affirmative and she continued. "Well, at any time he wants to my father can close down all floo access to the school, so as when anyone tries to get in it's like trying to run against a brick wall. The last gate can be exempted from this, so that even if the castle is under siege your friends can still get in and out."

Seeing that he still really didn't understand she elaborated saying "anyone who wants to get in gives 'The Last Gate, Hogwarts' as the address and, when they arrive here, they look into the mirror on that wall, and the headmaster lets them in through the fire place in the great hall. Monitoring how many people come through. That's the only time this fireplace is monitored though".

Sirius nodded for a moment to show he understood, then suddenly realised the implications of what she'd just said.

"You use this place to get in and out of school, don't you" he accused.

"Well it's better than breaking into Professor Binns' office" she said, laughing slightly. The potion in the corner gave a loud pop as a bubble in it burst.

While inwardly thinking "how the _hell _does she know about that", he outwardly protested, "We only did that once and we didn't even go anywhere interesting". In fact the four of them, in the days before the girlfriends, had gone back to his parent's house to remove the last of his belongings and steel a bottle of Black Bush whiskey from the liquor cabinet. She continued to laugh at his shock, her hair falling in front of her eyes, while he glared at her.

Sirius, not quite sure how to ask his next question, spoke slowly "I suppose not very many people know about this place" he said. She nodded to confirm. "Then why bring me here" he asked, "You don't know me, why trust me?"

She looked very awkward, and stared at the fire while answering his question in a whispered rush. "I figured that I kind of owed you for earlier". Now it was his turn to laugh while she glared.

"Speaking of reasons" she retorted, "why help me at all. Why does a Pendon fighter help a Nithan one, who he barely knows, escape from his own brother who also fights for Pendon?"

"I don't fight for Pendon anymore" he replied, "I haven't since I left home and as for the other, anything I can do to piss off my ape of a brother has to be worth doing". That made her grin from ear to ear and they laughed about it for a few minutes.

She looked shyly across the table at him. "You know, you fight very well for someone who hasn't trained in so long. Would you like me to sign you in as a guest at Nithan? I mean, I can't promise you'll be made a member or anything, but is a start"

Sirius was astounded. "You'd do that?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair, "why?"

"At the moment we need every fighter we can get numbers are so low, even if they are Pendon rejects" she admitted, "besides your too talented to waste; and we seem to have some things in common" This last thought sounded as if it surprised her, it certainly did him.

"Like?" he asked, perplexed.

"We both fight, have bad relationships with our parents and assholes for brothers".

They both laughed again not realising that in the future, when people asked what they saw in each other that would be exactly the answer they gave.


	4. A trip to Nithan

_An/ well this chapter has been a long time in the writing. Sorry to all those fans anxiously awaiting it (yeah cos I have so many of those). Credit on this chapter goes to Steph for continuing to pester me about it long after I had decided to give up. _

_The exceptions to the "it's hard to be scary when you're short rule" are Sin Si Joe, who although not much taller than me (5"4) pulls off scary very well, all credit to him, and my sister, barely five foot, who has come to be known as the man beater at school due to her right hook. _

_Credit to Edgar Allen Poe who taught us all that the best place to hide things is often in plain sight._

_I must also confess to stealing the three rings idea from "The Mask of Zorro" although I've reversed it and added enough of my own stuff that only the very basics of the original idea remains._

_Also Aberforth's "speed of mind" thing is quoted from "the Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas just because I love it. _

Chapter 4: A trip to Nithan

Sirius spent the next day wondering why he hadn't asked her. The question hadn't even occurred to him until after the two of them had parted outside The Last Gate.

He had returned very quickly to the Gryffindor Tower as soon as the rain had stopped, both of them had assumed that even the teachers most determent to catch rule breakers would have retreated to their offices during the storm. The incident had definitely taught him to be more cautious, he would never walk in the open so obviously again and he would renew his attempts to persuade James that they needed more than one copy of the Marauders Map. This was one of the rules that James had insisted on to try to keep their animagus abilities a complete secret. By James' way of thinking if there was only one map there was less chance of one of the teachers getting hold of it. Sirius had always thought that having only one map spelt trouble if it were to be confiscated; as it would mean redoing all the complicated spell work which had taken the four of them an entire summer holiday to complete. Having only one copy also meant that it had to be kept where the majority of the group were, although James was notorious for keeping it with him even when he was part of the minority. So far as he was concerned the map was his baby, the second one of his grand ideas to become a working prototype. Sirius stopped his train of thought the moment he realised he was considering taking the map and copying it of his own accord.

"If you can commit treason against your friends" he thought, "that would definitely be one of the offences on the list".

He was waiting by the door to the Last Gate the next night, unable to enter without Alin being present, covered yet again in James' invisibility cloak. She was late. Just as he was beginning to consider that she had made the whole thing up, there was a rustle in the trees behind him and she pushed down the hood of her invisibility cloak.

"Sorry" She said, shortly. "My Father decided that tonight would be a good time for one of our 'talks'. He had a lot to say tonight".

Sirius, about to ask what she and Professor Dumbledore had been fighting about, decided against it when he saw that, although her voice was calm, her hands were shaking quite violently. "It's cool", was his only reply, "at least it's not raining tonight".

She smiled half heartedly at him, before turning and opening the door to the passage way. Sirius managed the journey down the stairs this time without incident, reaching the room at the bottom with his toes all in one piece. When the torches were lit he could see that she had been back to the room since the night before, as the books on the table had been replaced with some small bottles and jars which she appeared to be filling with potion ingredients from a small purple sack.

"You might want to leave the cloak here", she said, "not that I don't trust my club mates, but it's an expensive bit of kit and some of Aberforth's mates are tricky enough to steal your underwear while making you believe that they're helping you with a business deal."

"Your underwear!" he asked amused. "Does she exaggerate everything this much" he wondered to himself.

She turned from setting the fire and looked up at him, one eyebrow raised and said, with complete seriousness "If they thought they could make use of it yeah. Most of them would enjoy the challenge of getting hold of it".

"I'll leave the cloak" he replied, a little unsure of whether she was serious or not, "James would kill me if I lost it". He took it off and set his training kit, which consisted of a small holdall and a long thin case, on the floor. He then threw it over the back of the same chair she'd left hers on the night before. While close to the table he caught a glimpse of the herbs in the jars. While he recognised some of the by sight, most were completely unfamiliar and the labels on the jars that held them seemed to be in some kind of code which was made up of numbers and Roman numerals.

"Are you ready?" she asked "we need to leave now, my uncle's waiting for us and thanks to my father we're already late"

"Sure, whenever you are" He replied. Suddenly the doubts he'd been having all day about this resurfaced. Pendon and his membership there was truly the last link to his family. Once he joined a club his father had always referred to as "bloody Nithan pacifists and blood traitors who permit mudbloods to join and pollute the oldest and purest sport", his contact with them would really be finished.

"What am I thinking?" the other half of his brain asked, "Since when do I want a relationship with them anyway. I left". With that he picked up his stuff and joined her by the fire.

As he walked he realised that she had no training kit with her, not even a change of clothes. "Are you planning to fight in your school robes?" he asked, confused.

"What?" she asked, looking distracted as she fanned the flames in the grate. He repeated the question. "I leave my stuff in a locker at the club. You can do that tonight if you want, it saves carrying it back and forward. The Nithan house elves will take care of the laundry. There". The fire had just sprung to light, making the room flicker and casting twisted shadows of himself and Alin on the wall.

"First or following" she asked when he stood beside her at the fire. She held a jar with more of those strange numbers and Roman numerals on the label out to him. He did however, recognise the contents of this one – it was floo powder.

"Following" he said, "just so as you can't ditch me"

She grinned, "Ok then". Sirius noticed that her hands had stopped shaking while she set the fire. She looked up at him and handed him the jar after taking a handful of powder. "Just do as I do" she reassured him, "you'll be fine"

He nodded to her, surprised that she could tell he was nervous. With that she turned and threw her floo powder into the fire. "Diagon Alley" she said, stepping into the green flames, she span rapidly then disappeared. Sirius waited for the flames to return to their normal colour before following.

The Diagon Alley grate always looked odd to those not brought up around floo powder. Instead of having the fireplace built inside a house, it had been built freestanding, complete with chimney, in a small alcove close to Gringotts.

Sirius emerged from the fireplace with the grace that only someone with a life time of practice of travelling by floo powder could manage – he didn't fall flat on his face like most people did.

"Why Diagon Alley?" he asked, looking around at the empty street, which was deserted apart from a few wizards who were obviously heading for the Leaky Cauldron. "Doesn't Nithan have a fire place of its own?"

"Yeah" she replied, glancing at the wizards the down the street, "but the security won't let you through without a membership disk. Until the council gives you one or throws you out we come in this way and we walk".

She set off down the street leaving him jogging to catch up, while he juggled his training kit. As they walked an awkward silence grew between them. Searching for something to talk about he commented "it must cost them dear to keep the location secret while still being attached to the floo network. The council at Pendon had to bribe four officials to protect the address from the ministry".

She giggled at that and suddenly looked very pleased.

"Care to share the joke?" he asked, becoming slightly annoyed at her secretive attitude.

"Sure" she replied, ignoring his tone. "It amuses me greatly that our 'brothers' at Pendon have to pay through the nose for something that we get for free". She continued when she saw how puzzled he looked, her tone becoming almost conspirital, "one of our members works for the floo department. I think he told them that the address is of his muggle wife's granny. That's not strictly allowed but they don't say anything because the old woman is family after all". She laughed again.

"Well ain't that a neat trick" he said, still slightly put out that she seemed to know everything that was going on. He turned to look at the darkened shops that they were walking passed, wishing he'd never spoken. "How far is it?" he asked, after they had walked in silence for about five minutes, knowing that there was very little of Diagon Alley left to walk through.

"Not far now" she answered, turning into the blind alley that led to the other, lesser used entrance and exit of Diagon Alley. She walked to the red brick wall, wand out, and tapped the right brick without even having to look for it. The archway formed in the wall and they both stepped through. This exit didn't come out behind a pub like the other did but was just hidden behind a large grey dumpster. This was one of the reasons it was less frequently used – there was much more chance of being seen. The alley was filthy. There was muggle rubbish everywhere and it smelled like the public urinals at a rock festival by the end of a long day. They were both concentrating so hard on not putting their feet in anything nasty; that when what Sirius had assumed was a pile of rags sat up and spoke they both jumped out of their skins.

"Hello Miss Alin, how's your uncle? Is he buying this weather?" The person who spoke was so bedraggled that it was hard to tell that it was a person in the moonlight. His hair and beard were so wild and tangled that he appeared to have no real facial features, just brown matted fuzz. His clothes were also tattered, and Sirius suspected that at least half the foul smells in the alley were coming from him.

On hearing the voice recognition crossed Alin's face. "Byron you terrified me". The man gave a little bow and looked towards Sirius questioningly. "A friend of mine" was all the introduction Alin gave. "I don't know whether he's buying or not. But I'll tell him you were asking" she paused for a second then threw a silver coin she had removed from her pocket to the man, "it's cold out tonight Byron, get yourself a coffee or something."

"Ah Miss Alin you're too good to an old wastrel like me…"he said, the coin vanishing from his hands as if it had never been.

"A wastrel you may be" she replied, "but you're not that old. It may be I'll be seeing you soon".

"That it may" came the voice, as Byron curled up and seemed to go back to sleep.

They walked on, Sirius burning to ask for an explanation, but not expecting her to offer one. Her face had a fixed expression about it, as if she was considering some complicated puzzle, and as they stepped out of the alley and onto the island of light given off by a muggle street lamp, he could she that she was biting her bottom lip in concentration.

They had turned left onto a street of slightly run down Victorian terraced houses. The whole neighbourhood looked like it was very slowly falling from disrepair into decay.

"It's just up here" Alijanna said as Sirius opened his mouth to ask for an ETA yet again, proving that she hadn't been as lost in thought as he believed.

This statement left Sirius feeling incredulous. This place, these houses looked like the least likely place in London to hide a secret wizarding club. The place where Pendon's training ground was at least had surroundings which fitted its activities. It was in an old house hidden deep in the country side, by both every concealment spell imaginable and through the remoteness of its location.

It suddenly occurred to Sirius that he was about to become one of the few people in history to know the location of both training grounds, a secret the clubs guarded from each other as much as from the rest of the world.

He was pondering what he should do with the unique information he would soon posses when Alin pushed open the iron gate of one house, and bounded up the granite steps. As he climbed the steps after her, Sirius heard a clock chime 8pm somewhere inside the house

The door was oak, old and covered in chipped black paint, but still solid looking. There was no door handle indicating that it could only be opened from the inside. There was however, a door knocker which was in the shape, as were so many of the others in that street, of a roaring lion. There was nothing unusual about the house, Sirius thought. It was a little better kept than the others in the street, but that was its only distinguishing attribute. In short, it was as well hidden in plain view as it could be without magic.

Alin stretched out her hand towards the door knocker but instead of using it, took the charm, a small spiral, from her bracelet, and inserted into the lions mouth.

The lion sprang to life, opening its mouth in a silent roar. Then a low growling voice, which sounded as if it was really the lion speaking, not just a charm which had been placed on it, demanded "who seeks entry? You stand before the door keeper". It seemed to gaze around, its cold steel eyes scanning them.

"Alijanna Dumbledore and her guest Sirius Black" she replied, while Sirius wondered if he should identify himself.

"Miss Dumbledore is recognised and welcomed" it stated, its voice a little less cold than before. "Her guest is welcomed also, provided that he keeps within our boundaries. Those are the terms"

"I accept" she said,

She then promptly began elbowing him until he got the idea and said "I accept too", which caused Alin to roll her eyes in his direction.

"Very good" the door keeper said "his name is registered in the log book. Welcome to Nithan Mr Black".

The door then swung open of its own accord, revealing a square, dimly light entrance hall, its windows swathed in red velvet curtains, in which figures in Nithan emblazoned, midnight blue practice robes walked down the stairs and into a door on the right, while men and women covered in sweat, and in one case blood, climbed to the upper floor.

Sirius was now very glad that he had brought plain black practice robes instead of his black Pendon emblazoned ones, "I'd probably have been lynched if I'd worn those" he thought.

After giving the blood covered woman a sympathetic glance, Alin beckoned for Sirius to follow her up the stairs. When they reached the first floor landing she pointed down the corridor to the right, "that's the way to the women's changing rooms" she informed him, "men's are down that way" another gesture this time to the left, "they're out of bounds to members of the opposite sex. The door straight ahead where the witch with the blood went is the medical centre. Up there" she pointed to the stairs to the third floor, "are the council rooms, no one goes up there unless invited".

"I'll see you in ten minutes back here" she said, "Just pick a locker without a name tag and be as quick as you can". Then she turned briskly on her heel and strode into the female rooms, leaving Sirius standing in the middle of the hall, mouth open, poised to ask several questions.

Swallowing them, he entered the changing rooms, which were thankfully empty, and changed quickly, before returning to the landing. While changing he relieved his frustration over her superior, bossy attitude by talking rapidly under his breath. He had begun to get the feeling that the only reason he had seen the friendly, sharing side of Alin Dumbledore last night was because she had felt she owed him something, now that she felt her debt was paid she was going to be as unpleasant as school gossip made her out to be.

Although Sirius had thought he had changed quickly, he walked on to the landing carrying his sword, find her waiting for him. She was dressed like the other Nithan members he had seen, in midnight blue practice robes. She had her hair pulled back in a straight forward bun, and the various pieces of jewellery that she normally wore were gone. She was also carrying her sword. She looked beautiful, yet so deadly, like steel sheathed in silk, that Sirius was almost scared. Almost. It was hard be truly scared by anyone that short.

Strictly speaking practice robes weren't robes. They were loosely fitting wide legged trousers and a wrap around jacket, the idea for which most wizards conceded came from the Japanese muggle sport of karate. This from of dress had been adopted in 1875 when it had been ruled in a supreme council meeting that the current uniform, where the competitors competed in only a loin cloth did not serve to make the sport look civilised or modern. There were some Pendon members who had started a campaign to reinstate the rule of loin cloth fighting, but most other members had thought that they were just dirty old men who wanted to ogle the women in the club because they weren't getting any at home. However, when Sirius started to imagine Alin fighting in only a loin cloth, he began see an appeal to those men's idea.

"Stop that" he mentally scolded himself for that thought, "I must not leach at scary short woman, she'd probably gut me if she found out, that or stick her sword in some very uncomfortable places".

She said nothing to him but beckoned down the stairs with her sword. They descended to the ground floor, Alin with her sword in one hand and running the other down the oak banister. The stairs creaked very loudly underneath the faded blue carpet which Sirius thought was probably an original feature of the house. When they reached the bottom they entered the practice room through the same door the others had come out of.

The room was much bigger than he had thought it could be. Sirius suspected that it was probably enhanced by magic. It was big enough that there were different areas dedicated to every different part of the sport. From where he stood Sirius could see people working on many different styles of kicks, punches and sword work. There were also three full size sets of practice rings, where duellists moved back and forth, practising for competitions.

Alin got many nods, waves and shouts of hello as she moved through the fifty or so people in the room. Sirius was beginning to see why she had been so eager to recruit him: most of the people in this room were in their forties or even fifties, a very different story to Pendon which had had an influx of young members over the last few years.

The two of them moved towards what appeared to be the oldest group of people in the room, all of whom were men. Their discussion finished as the group broke up and a man who had to be Alin's uncle stepped out of it.

Aberforth Dumbledore looked like his brother. Only odder, if that was possible. He had a lot less of Dumbledore's softness and readiness to smile around his eyes and mouth, and less of his slightly distracted good humour. He was taller too, and was covered in what must have once been impressive muscle for a lightly built man, but had become wiry with age. He had the same piercing blue, intelligent eyes which seemed to look through you. Sirius received this treatment as Aberforth looked over his niece's shoulder while hugging her.

When she was done hugging her uncle she turned back to Sirius and introduced the two of them, "Uncle, this is Sirius Black".

The blue eyes swept over Sirius again. They contained a level of suspicion that Sirius could never imagine being contained in Professor Dumbledore's face. Aberforth reached out to shake his hand, his impression of oddness being increased by the fact that a faded tattoo of a goat, of all things, rippled on his wrist.

As Sirius returned the hand shake he felt the calluses which covered the man's hands, including one odd feeling scar which stretched from little finger to thumb across his palm. He also had a scar on his bare forearms, a sign that perhaps not all of his fights hand been sanctioned ones with a healer in attendance.

"She tells me you're good" Aberforth said, while his niece made an indignant noise in the background over being called 'she', "So good that we're to ignore where you came from." He paused, eyeing Sirius again "Are you good?"

"I'm not bad" Sirius replied, feeling eyes on his back. Though he could see no one watching him he realised he was being watched out of the corners of all the eyes in the room.

"You haven't danced in the dark of the moon" Aberforth said giving the name for the open competitions which took place each month on a deserted moor, " I would remember you".

Sirius shook his head. "By Pendon laws to take part you must be recommended by your trainer. My father hasn't picked between my brother and me, so neither of us can compete".

The look on Aberforth's face portrayed his distaste for the Pendon practice of part training many apprentices before choosing the one you would pass your sword on to. Pendon felt that this insured that only the best fighters became full club members with their own ancestral sword. The number of these sword bearers had been set a an exact number of 8746 for the whole world in the Middle Ages and only a true sword bearer could train an apprentice to replace themselves as one of the 8746. Pendon's methods left a huge number of half trained swordsmen who could do nothing with their skills. By Nithan's laws you could only pick one apprentice from the beginning, so you hoped to pick well, and then you had to follow them through from about the age of ten until they either surpassed your achievements, and earned your sword or you died and they inherited it. Nithan's methods also had their drawbacks as far as Sirius concerned. The reason there were so many grey heads in the room was that Nithan sword bearers were reluctant to choose their apprentice until they found the perfect one. Often this meant that they died without picking one, leaving their swords to rust with out a wielder.

"The only way to tell if your good enough" Aberforth said, calling Sirius back from his contemplation of the rules, "is for us to see you against someone of your own class. You can fight Alijanna; the rest of us will judge you on your form".

Alin showed only a very brief flicker of surprise at this before nodding. Sirius however felt the need to protest that he was too much bigger than her for it to be fair. She looked slightly insulted at this, but her uncle only sighed and said "Fine, just middle and sword ring if you're feeling chivalrous. Warm up both of you".

Five minutes later Sirius stood opposite her in the centre of the three concentric circles, with half of Nithan watching them. Had he been about to fight her in the inner ring he would have felt more sure of winning, but more guilty about the prospect. In the inner ring, with all the fighting at very close quarters, the height weight and strength advantage he had over her would have made it nearly impossible for her to win. Even in the middle ring she would have to be very fast to overcome his natural advantages.

From the thirty seconds after the bell rang for them to begin he realised that 'fast' could not begin to describe her speed. She was lightning, spinning through the forms so quickly she blurred before his eyes. It was all he could do to stop the majority of her quick blows, aimed at his nose in hope of drawing the first blood and winning. To win he needed to pin her down so as to make his advantages count. But every time he thought he had her she whirled away, adding acrobatic flips and roundhouse kicks to the mixture. They didn't even get to the sword ring and their weapons before she had him. She changed tactics so quickly he didn't have time to react, changing to close quarters and using a simple hip wheel to throw him to the ground, she placed her foot on his wind pipe.

"Yield?" her voice was innocent but her smile and eyes were full of laughter.

He was about to reply when her Uncle said "don't gloat Alijanna." She removed her foot. "Good. Both of you" he said, as Sirius sat up, "lets do the inner ring now. Five minutes rest".

But his niece was shaking her head at him. "No" he asked, eyebrows raised much in the same way she did, "why?"

"I can't beat him at close quarters" she replied shaking her head and panting slightly, "I'm not fast enough, not yet"

Sirius expected him to order her to fight on, but he smiled suddenly and addressed the crowd saying "well, this appears to be a momentous day. Alijanna, it seems, has finally learned that she has limits, even if she did add 'yet' to the end of her confession", at this point his niece ducked her head behind the hair which had fallen from her hair to hide her blushes at the laughter in the room. "And Mr. Black has learned that the stronger swordsman does not always win", he turned toward Sirius, "It is speed of hand; speed of mind". He helped Sirius up, "lets work on that shall we".

Three hours and many speed improvement related exercises later Sirius stood out side the door to The Last Gate. He was about to put James' invisibility cloak back on when the question which had plagued him all day returned to haunt him.

"How did they know I was there?"

"What?" she asked, distracted as she watched the door to The Last Gate vanish.

"Last night. To trap me the teachers had to know where I was. How did they know?"

It surprised him that she looked sad when she replied, "Your brother told them, he ran straight to Slytherin common room and Vulpus, his head of house. Must have thought it good revenge on both of us". She paused allowing him to digest this information.

"I train again in three days, if you're interested" she said.

"So I passed the test" he asked ruefully.

"You passed. Be here in three nights; if you've recovered from tonight that is" she smiled a goodnight at him, then disappeared into the night.


End file.
